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June 15, 2010Fix the Real Problem: End America's Energy Vulnerability

The ongoing oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has taken
an enormous toll on the region's economy. BP's Deepwater Horizon
rig gushes as much oil every five to 10 days as the Exxon Valdez
released overall-and there's no end in sight. The economies of
Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and Florida will be
devastated for decades to come.

Some oil companies, such as Chevron, claim that this is an
isolated incident caused by a sloppy company, with its damages
confined to the gulf states. But it is a symptom of true national
crisis-a crisis caused by our oil dependence and our unwillingness
to release a national economy held hostage by fossil fuels. This
manmade disaster underscores the harsh consequences of delay in
addressing our currently unsustainable energy and economic
development path.

The current crisis demands that we do far more than protect
communities in the Gulf of Mexico. As President Barack Obama
himself has said, we must "make certain a spill like this never
happens again." Our national response must drive a sustained effort
to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. We must target the
structural causes of our vulnerability to oil in an effort to
rebuild and strengthen our national economy while restoring the
economic health of oil-dependent regions.

The debate about the BP oil disaster has so far focused largely
on how to keep drilling more safely-as if oil is the oxygen in the
very air we breathe. But there are alternatives: alternatives to
oil, and alternatives to the stranglehold that fossil fuels have on
the American economy. Public support for these
alternatives grows with each new barrel of oil flowing
into the gulf. It is high time for Congress and the Obama
administration to step up and heed this call to action.

The Obama administration's efforts to
manage the oil spill have so far been pragmatic and transparent.
What America needs now is for the president and Congress to make a
bold commitment to lead our country out of BP's oil spill mess and
away from the dirty energy sources that caused it, and toward a
profitable and powerful clean energy future.

Cleaning up and rebuilding the gulf will take much long-term
strategic thinking and planning, but this should not come at the
expense of immediate action. BP cannot and should not be trusted to
manage the real-time information and data that will inform the
rebuilding because their interests are inherently not aligned with
those of the American people. The Obama administration must take
the reins, deploy the military in playing a leadership role
in the cleanup, keep BP on the financial hook, and give the
American people an accurate picture of what is happening on the
ground.

President Obama must deliver on his core campaign promise of
accountability and transparency like he did with his leadership in
passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The
president should establish an independent
Gulf Recovery Oversight Board to manage the cleanup and recovery
efforts and make the information and data associated with them
accessible to the public via GulfRecovery.gov. This type of bold
action will send the message that this type of disaster cannot and
will not happen again.

Building a clean energy strategy will not be easy and the
president cannot do it alone. Congress has made significant
advances in laying out serious legislative proposals over the past
year that offer concrete proposals, not only for reigning in our
carbon emissions, but also for getting off fossil fuels and
rebuilding our economy on the firm foundation of energy innovation.
Yet Congress is only one step into a truly comprehensive strategy
to build a clean energy economy.

If we are to turn the BP oil disaster into economic opportunity
and reduce our strategic vulnerability to fossil fuel dependence,
the president and Congress must see this crisis in its true light.
It is not a crisis caused only by BP or even by our oil dependence
alone. It is a disaster borne from an economic strategy that is
based on dwindling and dangerous fossil fuels. There is a path out
of this mess:

We must better regulate oil while moving the country beyond our
dependence on oil.

We must aggressively invest in alternative energy technologies,
including energy efficiency programs.

And we must finally cap and price carbon pollution, meeting the
global commitment to bring carbon emissions down to at least 17
percent below 2005 emissions by 2020.

These efforts, taken together, can propel the United States
along the path to ending oil dependence, rebuilding our economy on
a low-carbon foundation, and meeting the climate pollution
reduction targets outlined in House and Senate legislation, even in
the absence of a congressionally authorized carbon trading system.
And it will preserve and enhance clean air and clean water for our
children and their children.

We are at a time unlike any other in history. The president,
Congress, and the American people must think big and realize that
the 21st century economy will not be powered by the same 20th
century engines. We need a strategy that will get us back to work,
wean us off dirty energy from hostile nations, bring health and
economic benefits to countless Americans, and drive the long-term
American prosperity and strength to which we are accustomed. We
need a clean energy future, and we need to start building it
now.

Moving away from our dependence on oil

The path forward to a new energy economy must begin with a
direct response to the current crisis. That means it must begin
with oil. We must stop risking workers' lives and putting taxpayers
on the hook to pay for our country's oil dependence. We need
comprehensive oil reform legislation that protects us from future
production disasters, reduces our oil use, promotes the transition
to less polluting fuels and a new generation of vehicles, cuts oil
industry subsidies, and generates revenue to help us reduce our
consumption of oil.

The Center for American Progress has proposed an oil reform agenda that regulates the oil
industry while also moving the country away from our utter
dependence on that industry. We propose:

Eliminating the liability limit for offshore oil disasters,
which currently caps oil spill liability at $75 million

Requiring all oil companies active in the region to invest in a
long-term economic development fund to reverse the decades of
damage that the oil and gas industry has done to wetlands and the
overall economy

Implementing fuel economy and alternatively fueled vehicle
measures that will produce a 7 million barrel-per-day reduction in
oil use by 2030 with interim reductions, and empowering the
president to implement these measures to reach that goal

Significantly reducing oil use from vehicles by establishing 40
mile-per-gallon fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks by
2020, and establishing the first fuel economy standards for medium-
and heavy-duty trucks

Powering trucks and buses with natural gas by enacting the NAT GAS Act